A romantic would call it serendipity, a cynic would call it chance, and a fatalist would call it fate - but the morning of April 1st, 2017 brought us a lot more than any other April fools day. After (literally) years of unknowingly circling each other in the same poorly lit Denver dive bars, the same favorite restaurants, going to the same shows on both Colfax and Broadway, and knowing more than a handful of the same people in the city, we were finally brought together when we both started at the same part-time, weekend-brunch job. An extremely hungover Penni shook hands with a, relatively speaking, healthier CJ, (who obviously still fell short of Penni’s charming Australian accent and personality), and the dominos started to fall. You could count the words spoken between our first meeting, and our mutual bewilderment of “how has this person existed without me knowing before now?”. The brunch job wasn’t a good one. The bartender cried. The host never showed up. Nearly every aspect, from the out of control staff to the bottomless cocktails we served to the guests, contributed to the chaotic mess of the place. The restaurant closed forever three weeks later. But obviously we felt like we came up in the black. I mean how else, other than getting second jobs out of sheer financial desperation, was a young boy from Michigan to meet a half Thai girl from Australia? You can call the rest history, but after two years of dating, multiple vacations, and moving in together, CJ proposed in the early hours of the morning on April 15, 2019 (his birthday no less), on a tropical beach in Koh Lipe, Thailand. It was, as they say, a fairytale moment (with a dash of rock & roll) followed by mai tais and flaming B52 shots in celebration. So with that, we both look forward to celebrating our wedding amongst all of our closest friends and family. We hope to see you all soon.